What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thu, Mar 22nd, 2007 2:30 AM PDT

Spiritual Counseling

First you call…

When a new client calls me to possibly set-up a time for either a phone appointment or to meet in my office, I am often asked, “What is it that you do?” I in turn often reply, “What is it that motivated you to call?” Within that moment this is where the healing begins.

Deep Listening...

The counseling work I do focuses on re-training the client to hear what he or she is actually meaning by what they say or do not say. Words in their essence are powerful seeds of manifestation, as they contain the vital force of life itself. The mind is also very powerful in its ability to assign meaning, give definition or set in motion, the formation of structure itself. The combination of these two forces, voice and mind, are what makes the essence within all of life visible. In another words, form (mind) is designed to serve function (the Divine within), manifesting as ones' true purpose in life.

The voice as the instrument of your truth...

The voice has been experienced since time was ever imagined, as an instrument of the soul. The ancient civilizations understood the power of sound and were very specific in their audible utterances. This is why much was sung, for to sing something activates the brain in a different way than speaking activates the brain. Singing with intention engages the vital force of the Soul and opens the inner chambers of the Divine Cosmic Heart. Within the word heart is ear, and the word art, and so one begins the conscious path of the art of perceptive, non-judgmental hearing when one opens and accesses their true heart. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts” is the sacred geometric formula for creating an energetic field of Love. What the mind (the sum of its’ parts) can create by separation, by forming something out of the vastness, can never be greater than the vastness, the field of Infinite, of Truth, of the Divine Cosmic Heart itself. Our voices need to be recalibrated to resound with our truth, not the re-enactments of our minds.

What does all this mean?

It means we walk about our world with eyes veiled to the greater mystery, beauty, power and fellowship that can and does actually exist. We live and are taught so much of the time to do rather than to be. This causes deep sorrows, disappointments and separations between Spirit within, the world around us and how we are able to feel and rest within the totality of our experience. We follow old roads made solid by ancestors, society and the misuse of our mind's power, and its influence over the voice. We engage in superfical listening, and questioning only from the mind why we make the choices that we do. we are taught to ask, "what is wrong, instead of what isn't right". We think often that healing means the absence of what we are feeling, because we don’t realize the true nature of our perceived pain. We seek the absence of pain, but this is just one aspect within the greater experience of what true healing is.

Living with your Soul forward...

This is another way to say being true to yourself, to follow your bliss, as the late great Joseph Campbell taught, or to live your life from your passion. But many of us struggle with thinking that this can’t happen because we over invest in the sum of its parts instead of accessing the whole. To access the whole is to quest for the Truth, so that the voice is the sound of your soul and that your mind helps to bring into manifestation your true hearts desire.

There is the past, and there is the future as much as there is now. And now is a dynamic, living breathing place that requires patience, attentive presence and most importantly, love to be the guiding force.It is not so much about remaining in now, but to just be with it, for what it is. As we allow it to be what it is in its truth, it begins to reveal itself to be more than what one initially believed was true. I wonder, does the butterfly or the bird as it flies through the air, spend its time recalling where it has just been? We humans seem to be unique in our desire to not only create but to re-create because we have the experience of doing so. But the question remains, how truly free are we, and how do we use the power we possess and to what purpose?Do we create that which remains familiar, or are we willing to move into a paradigm that allows us to experience beyond the need to remain attached to an event, a happening, and a familiarity. Are we trapped within a mind set that creating familiarity proves we exist? Can we experience a sense of connection without the binding strings of attachment? Can it be a matter of perception, where remembering is forgetting and forgetting is remembering? Does perception influence and create matter? Think about it. How much of our time is spent recalling events that keep us connected to something even if it doesn’t bring us happiness, for the sake of a feeling of belonging to something or someone, even if it means being defined by it. What if that could be different?Within the healing sessions that I offer clients, is the opportunity to learn to hear what is not being said, to perceive the absence of Love or the presence of Love, paradoxically within their stories, and to learn to say what is really true for them.

This is the key...

As this deep listening is developed, the client begins to perceive beyond what is literal, the polarization of a story into bad or good, right or wrong, and learns to see and feel with the eyes of the soul, of the heart. Our voices learn to speak from our heart, not our minds and our whole life begins to come into balance. Within a story recalled there dwells an awesome discovery of reclamation; where hope lives as a winged thing, where we truly can discover our true, authentic self, with our authentic voice,coming inwardly home and emerging back into our world as a humanbeing instead of a human doing.

Counseling Logistics

Session times run from 1 hour, 1.5 hours, and two hours. My fee for the time utilized is $90, $120 and $180.00 respectively. Fee scale applies to either phone consulations or office visits.

Thu, Mar 22nd, 2007 2:35 AM PDT

The Awakening Voice Workshop

I offer a powerful one-day workshop designed to assist a person on their journey of self-realization and soul liberation through the use of overtone chanting, sound and community.

The Ancients teach

that the instrument for the soul is the voice; a mystical tool of transformation, a bridge of hope and love where heaven and earth unite. The human voice is capable of manifesting and dissolving thoughts, patterns, even form itself. There is something present within a voice. It is a mystery, and within that mystery is the key to all that is, was and will be. There is a way to enter this mystery.

Sing from the heart ~ Chant to the Divine

When a person begins to sing, or sound a sustained note, something begins to happen. In this day retreat we'll begin by exploring harmonics or over tones; profound cosmic sounds contained within each of us, and all that is was and will be. As humans we are capable of activating and consciously transmitting this sound most effectively and profoundly through our voices.

We practice this by intentionally emphasizing these harmonics with an easy technique called overtoning. We will learn the practice of how to activate these inner harmonics, bringing them forward in our sounding.

Soulsinging.

Joining and gathering with others in this intentional sounding, begins to produce a profound effect in our very bodies and most importantly, our minds. A sense of calm and stillness pervades all around as this field of dynamic sounding light begins to resonate our whole being. These harmonics re-align and nurture our whole being, our soul, body and mind with a field of radiant hope, truth, and ultimately, love.

Dissolve imposed self-limitations by restoring your voice to its true nature through the power of these “soular” harmonics.

For those who have been told in the past that they cannot sing, this day is perfect to begin to heal those old wounds. Let us all make possible the presence of compassion for the personal, ancestral and for our world to come.

For workshop availability and dates, please click the "Schedule" link.

So many times we hear ourselves say, “If only” and “it always happens when…” These “songs’’ of lament create patterns of stress and worry, separation and sadness, often leaving us feeling disconnected and unfulfilled in our lives. Have we ever stopped to ask, “Is the story I tell myself and others in its essence, really true?” What is my truth and what do I deeply desire?

This weekend retreat offers the opportunity to open our ears and hearts to new ways of being, by listening and feeling, sharing and witnessing ourselves and each other. Through the power of meditation and reflection, breathing, chanting, group process and creating with our hands, we will begin to expand our perception of and refine the way we express the experiences that have shaped our lives. We will share in the process of learning how to listen to what it is we are saying and learn to articulate what is really true for ourselves with integrity, honesty and openness. Each of us will work with our hands creating our personal “story stick” to symbolize the process of our commitment to awaken to a deeper sense of listening and respecting our truth.

The purpose of this retreat is to explore and affirm our power as women, meaningfully and honestly, by asking ourselves how do we express our power, our voice, and be willing to re-tell the story of our lives with an on-going, restorative sense of dignity, compassion, gratitude and wisdom.

The retreat will take place at:Watervine, a place and space for healing 19921 Little Bear Creek Rd. Woodinville, WA. Dates: June 22- 24th, Friday 10-5pm, Saturday 10-5pm, Sunday 10-4pm. A delicious lunch each day will be provided. Cost for the 3 days is $325.00 Cost for the 5 day is $525.00

For more information call: 425-486-2476

Thu, Mar 22nd, 2007 2:24 AM PDT

Summer Solstice 5-Day Retreat

The Summer Solstice retreat always happens just before or after the summer Solstice. This is a time for great growth, the beginning of summer, and a time of planting into our conscious minds and hearts healthy seeds of hope and renewal. It is a time where an intimate group of women gather and work with their hands as extensions of our hearts. We spend time re-tuning ourselves to be in rhythm with our whole being. This retreat begins as a non-residential weekend and continues starting Sunday evening, as a residential for two additional days and nights. We explore deeply the realm of the sacred as it relates to our heart, soul and body united as one. We spent time as a group singing and chanting, sharing and listening, receiving teachings, meditating and creating in ways that nurture, support, explore and inspire. This is a time for women to come together to remember who we are, and to experience how much it matters that we are an essential and vital sacred presence for ourselves, our families, our communities and for our precious world. Past retreats have involved the making of ones’ own drum, rattles, smudge feather fans, etc. to the cleaning and restoring ancient natural wells. Each year is unique as the central theme of contemplation is different.

Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in
Leonard Cohen

Mon, Mar 19th, 2007 10:19 PM PDT

Bio

It began in Ohio then on to New York...

My introduction to metaphysical teachings began as a baby, sitting on my mothers' lap listening to the teachings of Egyptian Coptic masters Kurt Stanley and Hamid Bey. This training continued throughout my early child and young adulthood years. After High School, I went on to graduate from Ithaca College and received a BFA with a jazz emphasis. Upon completing college, life took me to the Bronx where I found work as a short order cook in a vegetarian café. When not juicing carrots and making soup, I managed to find time to hone my craft by performing my original songs and cover tunes in intimate coffee houses and musical venues. A favorite place of mine to play was the Nicolas Roerich Museum, where at the time I had the unique distinction of being the only non- classical musician to be asked to perform there. It was rumored that the ghost of Nicolas Roerich´s wife inhabited the museum, which had been their private home. It was suggested by the curator that the ghost enjoyed the music, and thus the curators repeatedly extended invitations for me to perform there.

My exposure to new ideas of sound and energy...

In 1985 While in New York, I became a co –manager of the now defunct gem and mineral store, Gemstoned, where I spent 4 years learning about and working with the mineral kingdom, as well as meeting many a fascinating person, including Tsultrim Allione, author of Women of Wisdom, and Henry Wolf, one of the first Westerners to work with and record singing bowls. I as well met through the store, Raphael Mostel, the American composer who formed the Tibetan Singing Bowl Ensemble, of which I became a member. It was during this period that I began to work extensively with harmonics produced by singing bowls, and taught workshops involving their use for many years. This fascination with singing bowls opened the door to my studies of vocal harmonics in later years. While in New York I met and subsequently studied healing and shamanic practices for several years with Rev.Rosalyn Bruyere, author of the book, Wheels of Light.

Moving to Massachusetts and conceiving Watervine...

In 1990 I moved to Western MA. and began teaching and working full time developing my healing practices in New York and MA. In 1991 I traveled for the first time to the Bon sMenri Monastery in India to meet His Holiness the Abbot sMenri Trizin 33rd Lungtok Tenpai Nyima, the spiritual leader of the Bon worldwide. Their mantras to the Divine Loving Mother awakened the realization that the Feminine aspect of the Divine has been forgotten and omitted by the Western world. As a result of this connection to the Bon people, the children, and my friendship with His Holiness, I have dedicated my life to the preservation of the Bon and their spiritual traditions by creating the Bon Future Fund, a non-profit that provides higher education funding for Bon children who have completed the 10th grade. In 1992 I began my studies and subsequently apprenticed with Jill Purce, author of, The Mystical Spiral:Journey of the Soul , and creatrix of the Healing Voice workshops and retreats. My years of working with Jill in England and within the Unites States profoundly deepened my understandings of the use of sound and its relation to the group energy field, the Divine Feminine, and the application of mantra for spiritual awakening. In addition, I began to study the work of Jill's husband, Rupert Sheldrake that continues to further my understanding of morphic resonance. As a result, I transformed the way in which I used to administer to clients, by conceiving Watervine, a place and space for healing and well being, in Northampton, MA. It was there that a group could gather and develop the awareness of how a field is generated by the presence of a group and how then it is shaped, shaped- shifted, fed and fed by the conscious and unconsciousness of the group becoming an instrument through and by which personal, and ancestral healing can transpire. The emphasis of Watervine teaches that it takes a quality of communion for true healing and well being to exist. It is a way to gather in a place so that within that space, a person can learn to perceive, receive and relate to our life as community.

Life in Woodinville, Washington...

In 2002, I married and moved to Woodinville, WA, where I live with my beloved and our two sons, continuing to work with the concept of Watervine, by helping individuals and groups find their true purpose in life.